A Brief History of Australian Motor Racing (1906 to 1950)
From The Australian Monthly Motor Manual Year Book, 1950-51 Australians, ever to the fore with keenness and interest in modern ideas in mechanisation, were quick to realise the possibilities of automotive transport at the turn of the century. 1906 and on And when motor competition began to develop in America and Europe, Australia was not far behind in organising events for local enthusiastic owners of the new machines. The pre-1910 era saw quite a number of trials, etc. and in 1906 a race meeting was organised on a private property at Aspendale, where a track was built, and a variety of cars of the era including Napiers, a Tarrant, Talbots and Panhards staged a series of events before a crowd of ladies and gentlemen. In 1911 a band of enthusiasts including Messrs Jack Day, Fred and Percy Cornwall, R. Jeffkins and L. Miller staged a meeting at Richmond racecourse using a GWK and two Mercedes cars. Hill climb meetings were organised at Wheeler’s Hill and Wildwood between 1911 and 1914. The first World War put a stop to all motor events and the first post-war event was a hill climb conducted by the RACV at Greensborough. The Aspendale track came back into use, and all kinds of events were conducted there, including petrol consumption tests, which were very popular in those days and were often included in trials. Trials and hill climbs were very popular in the early twenties in NSW, Victoria and South Australia. Many of the Victorian trials were held through the Western and Central Districts, and a particularly tough event held regularly was the Alpine Trial, which would make most of the Gippsland touring trial enthusiasts of today shudder with horror at the possibilities of damage to their cars and themselves. The newly formed Light Car Club of Victoria most enthusiastically sought new hill climb sites, holding events at Greensborough, Wheeler’s Hill, Bacchus Marsh and anywhere with any possibilities at all in the endeavour to always provide their members with something different. In 1926, Francis Birtles and Alec Barlow began pushing the slogan “Britain gives ‘em Beans” by establishing a record between Melbourne and Darwin in a Bean car, over a route surveyed previously by a Bean commercial vehicle. This, with other efforts, set a fashion for inter-capital records, which continued until the Second World War, after which they were not revived, possibly partly due to a justifiable official disapproval of public roads being used in such a fashion. The RACV was very prominent as a competition organising body in the twenties and shared honours with the Light Car Club of Victoria, later of Australia, as the foremost in that field. In later years the RACV have withdrawn from the sport, running but a single event each year, the hill climb at Mt. Tarrangover, Maldon, near Castlemaine. Car Clubs had a very enthusiastic following and included one for ladies, the Women’s Automobile Club of Australia. Motordrome days In about 1924 the Motordrome was built at Olympic Park and for several years track racing was held regularly there. The track consisted of a concrete saucer, and Fronty Fords, Morgans, Ballots, Amilcars, Grand Prix Bugattis, Aston Martins, Salmsons and Talbot Darracqs were among the famous makes represented there. Although the track was very popular with the motor minded young people of Melbourne, it was not a financial success and was demolished in 1932. Penrith and Maroubra During the same period two tracks became popular in New South Wales at Penrith and Maroubra. The Penrith track was a snaky flat circuit, while that at Maroubra was a concrete saucer. Cars such as Alvis, Sunbeam, Grand Prix Bugatti, Indianapolis Ballot, and a multitude of home built specials were regular competitors. Maroubra lasted much longer than the Motordrome, being eventually demolished during the war when the surface began to crumble, and is now the site of a housing settlement. Races were held during the twenties on a circuit on the beach at Gerringong, on the South Coast of NSW. The heyday of road races In 1928, Grand Prix racing began at Phillip Island on a circuit discovered by Mr. Jack Day and became an annual event. The races were conducted as simultaneous class events, with prizes for each class and for the outright winners. The Australian Grand Prix was there every year until 1938, when the event was held for the first time in South Australia, at Lobethal. South Australia had not seen much in the way of road races until 1936, when the Sporting Car Club of South Australia conducted a meeting at Victor Harbour which was such a success that car racing gained a definite following in that state. The Lobethal circuit was first used in 1937 and since the war has been used as well as road circuits at Woodside and Nuriootpa. Hill climb events in South Australia have been held at Glen Ewin, Glen Osmond and Mount Barker. The Aspendale track was abandoned in the late thirties and Phillip Island also began to be looked on with disfavour as speeds were rising steadily and were outgrowing the road surfaces. In 1935, a full scale meeting was held at Benalla, on a circuit consisting of two roads closed for the event, and two meeting were held in 1938 and 1939 at Albury. In 1937 the LCCA’s Rob Roy Hill Climbd, last to become nationally famous, was first used. Australia’s fastest growing sport Since the end of the war, the sport has been steadily getting on to a better and better footing. For some strange reason, Victoria, the state without a permanent circuit of any kind, has domiciled within her borders the cream of Australian competition cars. Such racing as has been seen in Victoria in post-war times has been held on airstrips and in an Army camp. Airstrip races are an excellent stopgap measure, but they lack the spectacle and atmosphere of a true road race meeting, as anyone who has seen both types will agree. However, the Light Car Club of Australia’s Hill Climb, at Rob Roy, has been developed to the position where it can be acclaimed the best in Australia, and meeting are held there several times each year. NSW, which is the home of all the best Ford Specials except one, is fortunate to have the use of the best circuit in Australia – the Mt. Panorama circuit, at Bathurst, where two cars race meeting are held every year. In SA, meetings are conducted regularly at Nuriootpa, where the 1950 Australian Grand Prix was run, and Woodside, while Lobethal has been used once post-war. These three are all good examples of road circuits. In Western Australia, where the first post-war Australian road race meeting was run in 1946, a road circuit is used in the township of Narrogin and airstrip races are run at Goomalling. Tasmania and Queensland, not to be left out, also run airstrip race meetings, at Valleyfield and Lowood respectively, at which interstate cars have competed. All this will indicate that Australia never has been, nor is today, lacking in enthusiasts and enthusiasm generally where all times of motor competition events are concerned, and with the growing interest on the part of the general public there is an assured future for this, one of the few remaining truly amateur sports in Australia today.